Talk:Golden Ambrosian Republic/GA1

I am going to being reviewing this article now. Charles Edward 14:06, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

1. Venice, now occupying Lodi and Piacenza, refused to listen to Milan's pleads for peace.- "pleads" should be "pleas"
2. Milan turned to Francesco Sforza, the greatest military leader of his day, offering him the position of Captain-General and the city of Brescia, which he accepted despite his disappointment that he had not succeeded the Visconti as Duke. Break this up into two sentences or reword it.
3. Sforza, with promises that he kept, won over the people of Pavia, giving him power and support. what promises?
4. Pavia gave him not only a very powerful city of his own, previously practically a second capital to Milan, but a strategic seat of power on the Po River, located in a position that the Venetians could not come to the relief of the beleaguered Piacenza via water. This is a bit muddled. Try separating it into two sentences.
5. Two of the Ghibellines who helped to found the Republic, however, namely Lampugnano and Bossi, stirred the populace against them in a massive demonstration before the Court of Arengo. remove however
6. Sforza schemes were voted down by the Republic in favor of more traditional tactics, viz., besieging Lodi directly. change "viz." to something like "they recommended" or "viz a vis"
7. The Venetian fleet withdrew and entrenched itself while waiting it waited for the arrival of the Venetian army. This is a little recurrent, try to keep the verbs in the same tense with the rest of the article.
8. The siege remained unbroken throughout July and until the 15th of September, when Attendolo launched a surprise-attacked on Sforza from an unexpected direction at an unanticipated time, so that. Sforza did not even have time to buckle on his armor. No need to explain what a surprise attack is.
9. Caravaggio fell, and despite general rejoicing in Milan, little gratitude was given to the architect of the victory, and the Republic sent him on to Lodi, determined to end the war
10. In Milan, Sforza's enemies continually worked ceaselessly against him.
11. Sforza learned of this treachery and defected for 13,000 ducats and the Duchy of Milan in return for the Ghiarad'adda, Crema, and his service. To whos side did he defect to?
12. And so, In an attempt to resolve the situation, the podestà was given absolute power.
13. Financial problems were also grave, so that fines, confiscations, and even a state lottery were instituted to try and alleviate the deficit.
14. Carlo Gonzaga, Captain of the People, became almost an autocrat, living luxiuriously with his will as law, with Giovanni Appiani and Giovanni Ossona, tradesmen-turned-politicians, supporting him and guiding the Republic. Break this up into two sentences, and reword "became almost an autocrat".
15. Following (something should be here) there was a massacre of leading Ghibellines within the city, from which only a few, such as Vitaliano Borromeo, escaped to safety in Arona and elsewhere
16. Sforza's victory now seemed certain from Milan's point of view, but he found his Venetian allies beginning to have doubts about their Captain-General. They now saw decided that a Milan run by Sforza would be far more dangerous and detrimental to their interests than that if it were run by a weak Republic.
17. Crema, the last of the territory they claimed, having been captured, Venice went behind Sforza's back and signed a treaty with the Republic. reword this to be more clear.
18. He was confident that Milan would quickly fall to him. After reinforcing his peace with Savoy with the concession of a few unimportant castles, he defeated the Venetians under his rival Sigismondo Malatesta and retained continued the siege
19. Sforza had made himself very popular for his generosity while on fighting for Milan and his abstinence from ravaging the countryside, and the public was convinced.' this is a bit muddled, try making it more clear
20. On the 22nd of March, 1450, he had himself declared capitano del popolo, and by right of his wife, the Duke of Milan change date to "March 22, 1450" - dont use "st" "nd" "rd" per MOS.
21. The Sforza rights to the Duchy were unsuccessfully challenged by Charles, Duke of Orléans, so the kingdom of Naples joined the Venetians why did this cause naples to join with venice?
22. The continued war was finally closed by the peace of Lodi in 1454 with the House of Sforza the established as the rulers of the Duchy of Milan
23. In the section First capitani e defensori you might want to add a section at the beginning stating what in what position the people are serving.
24. your reflist is long and narrow - split it by chaning the templat tag to this" {{reflist|2}}
25. I went ahead and formated your references - I am not proficient in Italian so please check to make sure I formated that one correctly
26. The inline sources that cite web sites need to cite the author and\or publisher plus the title and and access date. You could also use a cite template for uniformity, but that is not required.
27. The article is based largely off one book that is about 100 years old, it would be good if another, preferably new, source could be added. More than one source would help to add increased reliabilty in the article.

Overall I think that article at B quality, mainly because of the readability. It needs a thorough copy edit, you can start by correcting the prose issues I noted above. The referencing is adequate, but an increase in inline citation, preferably from an additional source, could still raise the quality. As far as coverage of the topic and images, the article passes. If the the issues i noted above can be addressed I see now reason that this article cannot be passed to GA status. It will, however, need significant work on the prose to qualify for FA status. Charles Edward 16:15, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the review. I'll take steps to correct the above issues. Unfortunately, there is very little published information on the subject. The book that is linked to was written by a recognized expert on the era, and was one of several books on that place and time period written by Cecilia Ady. I'm afraid that I have been unable to find much further information, in either primary or secondary sources. The Storia di Milano site is reliable, at least, being a scholarly site dedicated to the history of Italy, and backs up many of the statements made in Ady's book. --Narfil Palùrfalas (talk) 18:19, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I believe I've corrected all the above problems that I could. I'll continue to work on the prose in days following. --Narfil Palùrfalas (talk) 19:06, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Passing GA

1. YIt is well written:

   (a) the prose is clear and the spelling and grammar are correct; and

   (b) it complies with the manual of style guidelines for lead sections, layout, jargon, words to avoid, fiction, and list incorporation.

2. YIt is factually accurate and verifiable:

   (a) it provides references to all sources of information, and at minimum contains a section dedicated to the attribution of those sources in accordance with the guide to layout;

   (b) at minimum, it provides in-line citations from reliable sources for direct quotations, statistics, published opinion, counter-intuitive or controversial statements that are challenged or likely to be challenged, and contentious material relating to living persons; and

   (c) it contains no original research.

3. YIt is broad in its coverage:

   (a) it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and

   (b) it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).

4. YIt is neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without bias.
5. YIt is stable: it is not the subject of an ongoing edit war or content dispute. Vandalism reversions, proposals to split or merge content, good faith improvements to the page (such as copy editing), and changes based on reviewers' suggestions do not apply. Nominations for articles that are unstable because of constructive editing should be placed on hold.
6. YIt is illustrated, if possible, by images:

   (a) images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content; and

   (b) images are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.

I am passing the GA review now that the obvious prose issues have been resolved. To continue to improve the article for FA standards you will need complete the optional items i noted above including significant improvement to the prose and at least one additional modern scholarly source. Good job! Keep it up! Charles Edward 20:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)